SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NC_old1181 : Enhancing resiliency of beef production under shifting forage resources
- Period Covered: 10/01/2017 to 09/30/2018
- Date of Report: 10/04/2018
- Annual Meeting Dates: 08/09/2018 to 08/10/2018
Participants
Kansas State University Jaymelynn Farney Keith Harmony Walt Fick Iowa State University Katana Lippolis University of Nebraska Mitchell Stephenson Mary Drewnoski Daren Redfearn Jerry Volesky John Guretzky
The 2018 meeting was held at Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus - College Conference Center Room
2310 Centennial Road Salina, KS 67401-8196. Current officers are: Jamelynn Farney (KSU), President and Jim MacDonald (UNL), Secretary. In 2019, Jim MacDonald will be President and Keth Harmony (KSU) will be Secretary. The date and location for the 2019 meeting will be determined in the near future.
Collaborative projects that will be conducted, include:
Multi-university goals
Results of interseeding annuals into perennial forage (K-state and UNL; Guretzky to lead)
Publish producer survey on Nitrate Toxicity(K-state and UNL; Drewnoski to lead)
Corn residue grazing capacity (UNL, K-state, and ISU; Redfearn to lead)
Develop a in-service training for extension personnel regrading integrated cropping and cattle systems
Mary Drewnoski volunteered to lead the development and writing of the next, five-year plan of work that will be submitted in the Fall of 2018.
Accomplishments
Accomplishments
Short-term outcomes:
- Objective 1
Ammoniated corn residue can be fed in round bale feeders to cows without excessive waste, thereby allowing beef producers to use this feed resource in place of medium quality grass hay during times of low hay stocks or high hay prices.
- Objective 2
The cool-season annual invasive Bromus tectorum can only be utilized early in the growing season in western Nebraska. Strategic grazing on these grasses provides high quality forage for cattle and may increase the prevalence of native perennial grasses that are more sustainable and productive for longer periods in the spring.
Forage production on native rangelands is temporally and spatially variable. Greater understanding of factors that influence this variability allows producers to better match livestock demand with forage availability in both wet and dry years, thereby increasing the efficient use and increasing productivity per acre.
Breeding heifers strategically stocked and bred at a greater density early in the grazing season, and then removing open heifers at the growing season mid-point, provided producers with significantly more pounds of beef produced per acre as well as more heifers that remained on pasture with a similar calving due date. Production results were similar to intensive early stocking studies performed with stocker steers in which productivity increased per acre and beef was produced more efficiently.
After 7 years of treatment application on Sandhills meadow, there is no difference in botanical composition and aboveground plant production among grazing systems (mob grazing, simple rotation grazing, and continuous grazing); and trampling of standing live vegetation is the greatest and harvest efficiency and yearling weight gain are the lowest for mob grazing.
- Objective 3
Late summer planted oats and brassica are high in energy and protein. They can be stockpiled for winter grazing with little loss in nutritive value. These forages can be used to background fall weaned calves over the winter.
Oat-pea forage mixtures provide an option for producers to balance to quantity and quality of an early-season annual forage. The ratio of the mixture can be adjusted to better supply the producer with the best option for the growing region (eastern vs, western Nebraska) and the type of grazing livestock.
Cow preference for annual forages indicates that grass species are the most preferentially selected in both summer and winter forages. In the winter, low glucosinolate radish and winter peas were intermediate with many of the other brassicas a low preference. During the summer sunflower and sunn hemp were intermediate in preference with mungbean, safflower, and okra least preferred.
- Objective 4
Complete chopped sugar beets can be mixed and packed with crop residue and used as an energy source for cattle in an alternative beef production system.
- Objective 5
Information related to objectives 1 through 4 was disseminated to over 5,000 producers, consultants and advisors through presentations as at face-to-face meetings
Information related to the outcomes of objectives 1 through 4 were disseminated online through the beef.unl.edu website which had 359,000 users.
Impacts
- Lower feed cost for cow calf producers in the north central region can be achieved with the use of crop residues and cover crops. Participants of the three meeting series on this topic valued the knowledge gained at $28/cow.
- Although mob grazing, using ultrahigh stocking density during the growing season, is commonly reported to increase aboveground plant production and to increase soil organic matter and soil depth, we have found no improvement in vegetation characteristics or soil properties relative to other grazing strategies after 7 years on Sandhills meadows. Furthermore, mob grazing has not resulted in an increase in harvest efficiency, carrying capacity, or livestock performance. The additional infrastructure and human resource requirements of mob grazing compared to other grazing strategies does not appear to be justified.